How did it come to this?

Part 1: What’s a Peak Information Rate?

Noting it is a draft document, it seems evident that the person who wrote the section about the co-existence period didn’t know what the definition of PIR (Peak Information Rate) is.

Firstly, we have the section about co-existence period (Page 9 of the NEBS Product Description, for those playing along at home) that clearly says: “during the Co-existence Period, the PIR (and the lower end of any PIR range) at the UNI for each AVC TC-4 bandwidth profile will be… [12/1 in the NBN Co FTTN Network]”:

Table showing the speed limitations for FTTN/FTTB during Co-existence Period

So, it seems pretty clear that the Peak Information Rate and the lower end of any Peak Information Rate range will be 12/1 Mbps on Fibre to the Node… right?

Your natural instinct would be to lookup what the Peak Information Rate is… and to my delight, there’s a whole section on it! (my bold)

References to download and upload speeds (PIR and CIR) in this Product Description, including where expressed as a range, are to the maximum data throughput that the NBN Co Network is designed to make available to Customer at the UNI used to serve the relevant Premises, and not the minimum data throughput.

Now, given “during the Co-existence Period, the PIR (and the lower end of any PIR range) at the UNI for each AVC TC-4 bandwidth profile will be… [12/1 in the NBN Co FTTN Network]”… it seems pretty clear that the 12/1 mbps is a “maximum data throughput that the NBN Co Network is designed to make available… and not the maximum data throughput” (to quote the document word-for-word). And that makes it effectively a cap and a limit… right?

@jxeeno That’s our guarantee to RSPs. It is not a cap on speeds — Andrew Sholl (@andrewsholl) June 2, 2015

So, there you go! If we’re trusting what NBN is saying: Peak Information Rate is now both “not the maximum data throughput” and also is the “minimum guaranteed speed” at the same time. #notconfusing

Part 2: The Fibre to the Basement scenario

The company also included a row for the Fibre to the Basement conditions during the co-existence period. They state that the Peak Information Rate will be 25/5 except for 12/1 which obviously will have 12/1 mbps.

But if the co-existence period doesn’t “limit” or “cap” the speeds, why is there a row for FTTB there in the first place? All speeds delivered over copper using the NBN Co FTTB network, by default, can only guarantee 25/5 mbps – as shown in the table of speeds below:

Table showing the FTTN/FTTB AVC speed ranges in the draft of WBA 2.2

So:

if during the co-existence period, 25/5 is going to be the guaranteed rate, having the FTTB row in the first table is redundant tautology and means nothing.

therefore, it would imply that during the co-existence period, the speed will not exceeded 25/5 Mbps, hence having the requirement to say so in the WBA.

“No.”

“No. What do you mean no?”

NBN Co must like redundant tautology.

How would I phrase it?

Like this:

during the Co-existence Period, the NBN Co FTTB Network will be unaffected. The following PIR (and PIR ranges) on the NBN Co FTTN Network will become:

I'm the author of jxeeno™ blog and co-founder of HSCninja.com. I'm a bit of an #NBN and public transport geek. You can normally find me juggling work and my studies at UNSW where I'm currently completing a degree in Geospatial Engineering.

Jason kentwell

Wasn’t the NBN suppose to be more transparent not misleading

David Havyatt

Kenneth your original post is correct about the effect on consumers. If the maximum that NBN Co can guarantee is 12/1 then no RSP will be able to offer a service above 12/1 in the co-existence period without potentially breaking Consumer Law. Whether the RSPs let the line rip at whatever speed they can get is then a difficult question – because their tariff structure is built on assumed utilisation of shared resource like the CVC.

David Havyatt

Meant to add – RSPs will probably only offer a managed 12/1 with upgrade offerings subject to service test.